At the Permissionless conference yesterday, Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon told attendees that the network’s transition to proof-of-stake will occur in August ‘if everything goes to plan.’

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"As far as we know, if everything goes to plan, August—it just makes sense," said Van Loon. "If we don't have to move [the difficulty bomb], let's do it as soon as we can."

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Ethereum Foundation Justin Drake, also on the panel, shared there’s a “strong desire to make this happen before difficulty bomb in August," according to a tweet from event co-host Bankless.

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The “difficulty bomb” is a code adjustment made by Ethereum developers in 2016 with the Merge in mind. In simple terms, it will slow down the network to encourage developers to push forward with the Merge while discouraging miners to stay behind on the proof-of-work mechanism after the upgrade.

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This news comes a little over a month after Ethereum Foundation developer Tim Beiko announced on Twitter that the Merge would come in the latter half of 2022 instead of June as promised.

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“It won't be June, but likely in the few months after,” he shared in a tweet. No firm date yet, but we're definitely in the final chapter of PoW on Ethereum.”

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